Who Trolled Amber? - Dr Anti-vax: Episode 1 - The fall

Episode Date: October 24, 2023

A British doctor sparks a global health panic about the safety of vaccines. But even though his work is discredited, he lights a fire that becomes the modern anti-vax movement. Hosted by Alexi Mostrous. This is part 1 of a 3-part series - to listen exclusively to episodes 2 and 3 today subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts or become a member and listen on Tortoise's audio app. You can find out more about Tortoise:Download the Tortoise audio app - for a listening experience curated by our journalistsSubscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free content Become a Tortoise member and get access to all of Tortoise's premium audio offerings and more.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ACAST powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show of glamour and scandal and political intrigue and a battle for the soul of a nation. Hollywood Exiles, from CBC Podcasts and the BBC World Service. Find it wherever you get your podcasts. ACAST helps creators launch, grow, and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast.com Tortoise We're in the middle of an anti-vax storm.

Kennedy is challenging President Biden for the party's nomination. He's also an anti-vaccine activist. A world of garbled science and outlandish claims. You are five times more likely to get sick, more than 10 times more likely to die, if you've been what? V-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-vaccinated. Where one in four Americans believe vaccines cause conditions like autism. You've said in the past that there is a correlation

between vaccines leading to autism that's totally been debunked. Wait a minute, who debunked it? The CDC, the World Health Organization, the National Academy of Sciences. Those organizations are captive agencies, Lindsay. And so you think they're all in cahoots? Yeah. Once on the fringes of public life, anti-vaxxers have reached the top of politics.

In Florida, we reject the biomedical security state. Florida has defeated Fauciism. Today, vaccines are part of the culture wars dividing America and other countries like the UK. And people are dying as a result. 200,000 Americans needlessly perish because they believe the anti-vaccine disinformation and refuse to take a COVID vaccine. So the point is now it's a lethal force in the United States. Science is supposed to move us forward to benefit the public good. But with vaccines, it seems like we're going backwards.

Why are so many people turning against a scientific miracle, something that has saved literally millions of lives. How did we get here? How did the anti-vax movement get so big? To try and answer that question, I want to tell you a story about a doctor. A doctor who 25 years ago caused a worldwide scare over vaccines and is still peddling misinformation today. wide scare over vaccines and is still peddling misinformation today. His story teaches us a lot about why the anti-vax movement is growing so fast, because what happened to him happened in a bigger way to millions of Americans. You've been doing this almost 30 years. What is it like to start seeing mainstream America waking up to this issue?

If the anti-vax movement today is a fire that's burning out of control, this guy is the original fire starter. He's patient zero. You are the only person speaking truth to power. He's so charismatic, he's so on your side. He has had a massive, massive impact. I'm Alexei Mostras, and from Tortoise, this is Dr Antivax. Episode 1, The Fall. Oh hi, is that Andrew O'Toole? It is. There's a good case that vaccines are the most effective public health intervention of all time.

The numbers are pretty astonishing. Take just the US. During the 1920s, diphtheria killed more than 13,000 people each year. Today, that's zero. In 1950, around 2,000 people died from polio and many more were left with lifelong disabilities. That number today? Zero. It's the same story with smallpox, rubella, whooping cough and others. Vaccines got them all.

And yet, in the last decade or so, at least some of that progress has been reversed. And yet, in the last decade or so, at least some of that progress has been reversed. In the UK, the number of kids being vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella has fallen to the lowest level in a decade. In the US, 20 years after vaccines eliminated measles, about 1,300 cases of the disease were reported in 2019. The World Health Organization says we're experiencing the biggest sustained decline in childhood vaccinations in three decades. Where did it all go wrong? The answer is complicated. There are lots of threads and they don't all lead back to the same

place. But if you pull on one, you'll find this thread leads back to London in the late 1990s, to a small room in a certain hospital, and to an almost unknown doctor called Andrew Wakefield. The story really begins in that week, February 1998, with the Lancet press release. That's Jeremy Lawrence. In 1998, he's working as the health editor of the Independent newspaper.

He's assigned to cover a new medical paper being published in the Lancet, a highly reputable medical journal in the UK. In the days before publication, Jeremy notices that something strange is happening. So the medical journal, this press release is every week, and they always want as much publicity as possible. The first sign of things going wrong was that this paper, which we all knew was going to be controversial,

was omitted from the Lancet press release. And it was clear they were anxious about it. The Lancet had good reason to be anxious. The paper, written by an obscure gastroenterologist called Andrew Wakefield and 12 other researchers, raised the possibility for the first time that the MMR jab could be linked to autism. The paper had gone to four peer reviewers. It had been looked at by three panels at the Lancet. They were worried about it. They knew it was going to be controversial. If the Lancet shied away from media attention, the Royal Free Hospital where Wakefield worked took the opposite approach. They arranged a press conference to tell journalists about the paper and to answer any questions. We were ushered into this room, I think on the ground floor in the basement. It was a small room,

it was not big. We were not a big gang of reporters. I should think there must have been a dozen of us. The panel, as I say, was sat behind a table. There was a lectern. On one side of the room, 12 journalists, including Jeremy. On the other side, on a raised platform, were five doctors. Wakefield at one end, on the other end Professor Ari Zuckerman, the Dean of the Royal Free Medical School. Zuckerman wasn't an author of the study but he'd been brought in to provide reassurance. Zuckerman was determined that the message given to the press would be don't stop taking the MMR vaccine, it's safe. This panel had agreed a consensus. They wanted to publicise their paper,

but at the same time, they wanted to put it in proportion. Unfortunately, Andrew Wakefield had other ideas. What happened when they let us in was that that carefully crafted consensus completely fell apart under questioning from His Majesty's press. And what I vividly remember about that press conference was that we got steadily more heated as time went on. end, you had Andrew Wakefield sitting at the left-hand end of the panel, coolly declaring that in his opinion, parents would be advised to give their children the vaccine separately, the three vaccines separately at yearly intervals, while stood at the lectern at the other end,

Professor Ari Zuckerman, a virologist who was not involved in the paper and who was chairing this press conference, thumped the lectern with his fist, saying, this vaccine has been given to 25 million children around the world and it is safe. Zuckerman's fist- thumping didn't work. The next day's headlines were all about the potential risks of the MMR jab. Newspapers like the Daily Mail spent the next few months interviewing parents who claimed their children had been damaged by the vaccine.

The impact was significant and sustained. impact was significant and sustained. In the UK, national vaccination rates for MMR fell from above 90% to below 80% in 2004, and in Ireland it was even worse. This latest outbreak of measles in the Midlands follows outbreaks in southwest Dublin and the west of Ireland. It's almost three years since the last major measles epidemic. This occurred in the eastern region in March 2000 when over 1,200 children got measles. Hundreds were hospitalised and three children subsequently died from complications. What I hadn't realised was how quickly Wakefield's claim had an impact beyond Britain in the US. Soon as Wakefield publishes this study and as soon as media attention ramps

up, we see a sharp, sharp spike in adverse event reports, one which has not gone away. And so what has essentially happened here, we think, is that Wakefield has kind of brought public attention to this issue and fundamentally altered the way that Americans think about vaccines. Let's fast forward to 2010. The medical establishment in the UK finally starts to take action against Andrew Wakefield. It's taken 12 years, but the doctor's regulatory body in Britain, the GMC, strikes him off, finding that he's acted dishonestly. In the same year, the Lancet retracts Wakefield's paper. But by then, Wakefield's moved on to Texas, and it's in America that he really starts to light the fire of what is to become the modern-day anti-vax movement.

He tours the country, speaks at autism conferences, and starts meeting parents whose kids have developed autism. Parents who desperately want an explanation for what's happened to their children. To these parents, Wakefield is extraordinarily compelling. The way he appeared to me and many others, he's so charming, his eyes look so compassionate and he always connects with people. Francesca Alessi worked with Andrew Wakefield for 10 years. She filmed him interacting with hundreds of mothers and their autistic children. He always seems to give that vibration that he really gets you no matter who you are.

And for the mothers of autistic children, they treat him like the Messiah. Once you tell him that, yes, you're right, I believe in you, then you become part of this like greater good. And we're in this together. It becomes sort of like an army and a family at the same time. An army and a family. That's powerful. To these parents, Wakefield offered hope. Hope that the mainstream medical establishment couldn't provide.

Actually listening to parents is something that a lot of doctors are surprisingly bad at. Plenty of parents of autistic children tell stories of being fobbed off by busy medics whose basic message is bad luck these things happen. So for a doctor to say I hear you, I believe you, well that's a big deal. And this tactic of Wakefield's it's still a major part of today's anti-vaccine movement, still a major reason why it's so popular. It was Wakefield's contention that the parents' views should be paramount, that they should come first above everything. But of all the parents whom Wakefield met during this period, there's one who I think is particularly important. This mother goes through something

which by rights should have been the final nail in Wakefield's coffin. This mother's story isn't that well known. It isn't nearly as famous as Wakefield's Lancet paper. I'd never heard of it before making this show. But it's a story that should have got Wakefield cancelled in the United States in the same way as his controversial research cancelled him in the UK. ACAST powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend. Hi, I'm Una Chaplin, and I'm the host of a new podcast called Hollywood Exiles. It tells the story of how my grandfather, Charlie Chaplin, and many others were caught up in a campaign to root out communism in Hollywood.

It's a story of glamour and scandal and political intrigue and a battle for the soul of the nation. Hollywood Exiles, from CBC Podcasts and the BBC World Service. Find it wherever you get your podcasts. ACAST helps creators launch, grow, and monetize their podcasts everywhere. ACAST.com everywhere. AKS.com. In 1994, Teresa Cedillo gives birth to a baby girl called Michelle. Michelle is a healthy child, happy and robust is how Teresa describes her, and the first 15 months of her life are unremarkable. She has all the routine childhood vaccinations,

including in December 1995, an MMR jab. One week later, Michelle develops a fever and a rash. By the morning of January 6, 1996, her temperature is 105 degrees. She's prescribed antibiotics and the fever dies down, But a few months later, a pediatrician notes that Michelle has developmental delays. A year on and Michelle is formally diagnosed with severe autism, as well as profound mental retardation. For Teresa and her husband, it's really tough. For Teresa and her husband, it's really tough. They did not have doctors near them that were either very supportive or able to give them a lot of help. And they had a daughter who was in such excruciating pain, would sometimes be awake for 18 hours at a time, hitting herself.

awake for 18 hours at a time, hitting herself. And some of her doctors felt like because she was in so much pain, she was trying to attack the pain, would have bouts of diarrhea that would last for hours and hours and sometimes days, followed by bouts of constipation, needed essentially two around-the-clock caregivers at all times. That's Seth Mnookin. He's a professor from MIT who spent years researching the anti-vaccine movement, and he's followed the Cedillo case closely. And they started going online and found examples of other parents saying, my child also had gut problems and had a vaccine

and started showing signs of autism. And we think that the vaccine caused this and that's what's going on. So they then fell in with this, with an anti-vaccine group. And that leads her to attending an autism conference in San Diego in 2001, where she meets Andrew Wakefield. The Cedillos had been told by every specialist that they had been to that we do not know what to do. We don't know how to help your child. We don't know how to help her pain. We don't know how to help her GI issues. And what Andrew Wakefield said was, yes, I believe that we can help your child. By the time they meet, Teresa has already applied

to a body called the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Set up in 1988, the program pays out money to U.S. citizens who've been injured by vaccines. Side effects from vaccines are rare, but they do happen. Claims are decided by a special vaccine court, which uses a lower standard of proof than a standard trial. Effectively, if you can show that you suffered one of a recognised list of injuries after taking a vaccine, you're likely to get a payout. Teresa's claim on Michelle's behalf is asking for compensation for brain injury. Brain injury, or encephalopathy, is one of the recognised injuries,

so it should have led to a quick payout. But after meeting Wakefield, something important changed. Teresa amended her claim to one which alleged that Michelle's autism was caused by the vaccine, not a brain injury but the condition of autism itself. This was brand new territory. The vaccine court had never paid out for such a claim. Autism was not on the list of conditions that the court recognised. So making the claim was a big risk for Teresa. In 2001, there are only a handful of other parents who've submitted claims that vaccines caused their children's autism. But as Wakefield toured the country, that didn't last long.

last long. Previous to Andrew Wakefield, previous to his publishing his paper, previous to his going on these huge PR campaigns, anti-vaccine PR campaigns, there were almost no claims in the vaccine, National Vaccine Injury Program, that vaccines cause autism. Literally almost no claims. Then, once he started pushing this, and then once especially lawyers started getting involved, you saw an explosion of cases. And so in the early 2000s, you went from having basically no claims that vaccine caused autism in this court to thousands and thousands of claims. By 2007, when the vaccine court was finally ready to hear Michelle's case, there were more than 4,800 claims from parents, each one accusing vaccines of causing autism in their children. The court decided to hear three test cases, and Michelle's was the most important.

The result would determine whether she and thousands of other children would receive compensation. What's more, if Teresa won, it would be a huge victory for Andrew Wakefield. It would have been interpreted as proof positive that Wakefield was right, that he had been vilified unfairly. In many ways, the stakes really could not have been higher, not only for him, but for the

perceptions of the vaccine program and vaccine safety moving forward more generally. It's a cold morning in February 2007. Michelle's case takes place in a wood-panelled courtroom just across the street from the White House. Michelle is brought into the courtroom by her parents, Teresa and Michael. The case has taken so long to get to court that she is by now 12 years old, strapped into a wheelchair and wearing a helmet

to protect her in case of seizures. Unusually, these proceedings are recorded and you can hear how Michelle's involuntary cries punctuate the silence of the courtroom. As the hearing begins, thousands of other petitioners follow along intently via a live link. Their fate also depends on the judge's decision. Today and over the next three weeks, we will hear not only about Michelle's own condition, but also extensive expert testimony concerning the petitioner's first general causation theory. concerning the petitioner's first general causation theory.

That is, the general theory that MMR vaccines and thimerosal-containing vaccines can combine to cause autism. After the lawyers make their opening statement, the court hears from Teresa Cedillo herself. When did you first have concerns about Michelle's development and her behaviour? It would be following the fever. So sometime in mid-January of 1996? Around that time. And what was your first concern?

That she no longer spoke. Did anybody else in your family share your concerns? Yes, my husband and my parents. His parents. Even though Wakefield isn't called as an expert or as a witness, his name runs through these proceedings like a stick of rock. Now, you testified yesterday that you met Dr. Andrew Wakefield at a 2001 Defeat Autism Now conference, is that correct?

Yes. Had you heard of Dr. Wakefield before that conference yes I had how did you hear it and on the internet and from other parents have you ever exchanged emails with dr. Wakefield yes I have approximately how many I boy I don't have a number more than 10? Yes, more than 10. More than 50? Probably more than 100, but less than 150, I'm guessing. More than 100, but less than 150? I'm guessing. Are you still in contact with Dr. Wakefield? Yes, I am.

Once Teresa is cross-examined and every step of Michelle's traumatic medical history recalled and described and probed, it's the turn of the experts. Many point out that major studies have effectively ruled out any link between the MMR and autism. But it's the testimony of one expert that proves decisive. So I trained as a child and adolescent psychiatrist in France, where I started my clinical and research career. I joined the National Institute of Research... This is Professor Eric Fonbon,

one of the leading autism specialists in the world. On day six of the trial, he takes the stand. In October, we called him up to ask him about the case. He remembers studying home videos of Michelle as a child, including one recorded on her first birthday, months before the MMR vaccine. So I said to the judge, we all have had children, we've seen children, babies who are one year old,

and we know what are the ingredients of a birthday party. So I'd like you to portray in your mind, before I show you the video, what a typical child's behavior with a 12-month-old during a birthday party would do. And then we looked at the video. Happy birthday, Michelle. Happy birthday, Michelle. And then you see that child is completely non-responsive, nothing, no communication, no affect, no interest for any human presence in the room, even her mother.

Eric tells the judge that even at this point, Michel is already showing early signs of autism. And he's gathered other clips too. But there is one clip which was particularly telling, which was a clip like, I think it was one week before she received the MMR vaccine, where she is with her grandparents in a big room where there are toys and activities for the children.

And then you have her grandparents calling her, telling her something. She never looks at them. And in several occasions, she engages into a behavior. This behavior, which is what we call a repetitive hand and fingers movement, is a very typical behavior of autistic children. They are fascinated by the flicking of the light through their fingers, and they can do that in a completely inappropriate place. It's all absorbing, it's a fixation. So you could see that she was doing that, which is really the almost diagnostically specific of autism. And you see that two weeks before the MMR shot.

Eric's evidence is a turning point. In the audience, you could have seen people were completely silent. You could see the judge's reaction say, wow, yes, he's right. The hearing continues for another few weeks. Wakefield's name crops up again and again. He's even mentioned by Teresa's lawyers in their closing arguments. And then the final point I want to make is what this case is about. And it is not about Andy Wakefield. It's not. It's about Michelle Cedillo. It's about 4,800 families looking for justice. Finally, on June 26, 2007, the hearing finishes. But the parents have to wait another two years

for a decision. Eventually, the lead judge, George Hastings, hands down a 200-page judgment. His conclusion for Teresa Cedillo and for the other parents who brought the claim is devastating. Unfortunately, the Cedillos have been misled by physicians who are guilty, in my view, of gross medical misjudgment. I feel deep sympathy and admiration for the Cedillo family. However, I must decide this case not on sentiment,

but by analysing the evidence. In this case, the evidence advanced by the petitioners has fallen far short of determining such a link. Accordingly, I conclude that the petitioners in this case are not entitled to a programme award on Michelle's behalf. The vaccine court was categorical. There was no compelling evidence that the MMR vaccine caused Michelle Cedillo's autism. Wakefield was wrong. And really, this should have been the end of the story. By 2010, not only had Wakefield's findings been denounced by the British medical establishment, but he'd been trashed in America too by a US vaccine court that spent almost a decade looking at the evidence and finding no link between MMR and autism. In a rational world, that might have been that, but it wasn't. Because Wakefield seems

to have learnt something from the Sidio case, something that he passed on to the modern-day anti-vax movement. Criticism from the establishment? It doesn't matter. If the medical journals are controlled by Big Pharma, if the courts are corrupt, then getting trashed by them is not only to be expected, it's to be welcomed. It's proof that they're part of the

problem. In the years after the Stio case, Wakefield sees donations to his group soar, his supporters rally, and he gets bolder and bolder. For the modern day anti-vax movement, and for Wakefield himself, the Stio trial isn't the end. It's the beginning. In episode two of Dr. Antivax, Andrew Wakefield discovers the power of celebrity. Robert De Niro made headlines last week when he appeared on Today with me and Savannah. He starts to rake in some real money. And so they raise millions and millions from it and just wire the money to themselves. And he makes some enemies along the way. You sue me for $450,000? Who does that? Thanks for listening. You can get early access to this and to all our Tortoise investigative series,

plus ad-free listening by subscribing to Tortoise Plus on Apple Podcasts. Or for the best Tortoise listening experience curated by our own journalists, download the Tortoise app. And please leave ratings and reviews. They really help. Dr. Antivax is written and reported by me, Alexi Mostras, and Ilan Goodman. The producer is Ilan Goodman. Sound design is by Tom Birchall. The editor is David Taylor. Tortus